The Beijing Olympic flame relay was cut short in Paris Monday due to disruption by pro-Tibet activists, while protesters in San Francisco scaled the Golden Gate Bridge ahead of the next leg.

In the French capital, constant interruptions by hundreds of campaigners protesting China's human rights record forced officials to douse the torch several times before halting the planned procession outside the French parliament, where some deputies hung a Tibetan flag on a railing.

It was taken by bus to its final destination -- a stadium in the south of the city where clashes promptly broke out between pro-Tibetan activists and China supporters, forcing police to intervene.

It finally left Paris shortly after 10 pm (2000 GMT) for San Francisco, French airport officials said.

By then the worldwide protest had already moved to California where protesters scaled San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge ahead of the torch's next stop on Wednesday.

Democratic White House candidate Hillary Clinton also upped the ante with a call for President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony ahead of the flame's only appearance on US soil.




There had been scuffles from the start in Paris as the torch set off from the Eiffel Tower with torchbearers struggling through the capital despite a phalanx of motorcycle outriders, jogging firemen, and police on rollerblades.

Hundreds of pro-Tibetans carried banners with messages such as "Tiananmen 1989 - Lhasa 2008" and "For a bloody world welcome to the Olympics made in China."

Exiled Tibetan leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in the latest unrest against Chinese rule which began on March 10.

China insists its security forces killed no one while trying to quell the protests. It says Tibetan "rioters" killed 20 people.

In Paris Monday, members of the media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) unfurled large black banners -- showing Olympic rings turned into handcuffs -- from the Eiffel Tower, along the Champs Elysees and over the main door of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Each time the running torch was extinguished it had to be relit from the "eternal flame" which was surrounded by heavy security.

A high-profile ceremony planned at city hall was called off after officials draped a Tibetan flag from the building, with at least eight people arrested.

The incidents in Paris came a day after rowdy protests on the torch's London leg, where British police said more than 1,000 protesters tried to disrupt Sunday's proceedings with 37 arrests.

Chinese state media said the behaviour of pro-Tibetan activists in London was a violation of "the Olympic spirit".

"Any acts, motivated by political bias, to instigate some extremist groups and individuals to sabotage the Olympic torch relay will victimise not only the Olympic Games, but the Olympic spirit that embodies the lofty ideals of mankind," an unsigned commentary said.

But the protests looked set to continue.

In San Francisco, local media reported four arrests by California Highway Patrol while the three protestors -- apparently equipped with rock climbing gear -- remained suspended from the city's famous bridge.

Clinton's call for a US boycott of the Olympic opening came five days after the White House rejected similar moves in Congress.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto reiterated Bush's objections.

"The Olympics will take place, and we expect the Olympic -- American qualifying Olympic -- athletes to participate in those games," Fratto underlined.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge called Monday on China to peacefully end unrest in Tibet ahead of the August Games.

"Violence for whatever reason is not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games," he said at a meeting of National Olympic Committee heads in Beijing.

The head of the French Olympics Committee said people "should have let this flame through". "They could have held their protests to one side," said Henri Serandour.

From Paris the flame leaves for the Americas, with Buenos Aires following San Francisco on Friday.


This are news from the internet about the torch relay